Time to go Home
I was the main Programmer for my graduating Capstone Project "Time to Go Home".
I worked with Leigh Smith -3D artist and Tech artist, Marvie Marin -Art director and 2D artist
and Jay Brendan Del Rosario who composed the music.
In a team of 4, we crafted a narrative game that touches on neglect, through the whimsical and innocent eyes of a child.
Play the game on itch.io
Over the course of 4 months, we conceptualized, prototyped, iterated, playested and polished a complete game, for our graduating project in our RMIT Bachelors of Games Design. I was the producer and programmer, but in the small team of 3, our roles necessitated flexibility and I found myself taking charge in most of the 2D rigging and animation as well.
I took inspiration from my time working as a childcare educator, seeing children who would wait eagerly for their parents to pick them up, sometimes for a little longer than they would like to. Time to Go Home is structured with the player from this perspective. The game invites you to waste time away, doing things we might’ve only done a long time ago; drawing, sticking, playing with dolls.
I programmed these activity ‘minigames’ to feel tactile and pleasant, as to invite the player to be lost in the activity itself. By structuring the gameplay in segments of Classroom>Activity>Memories>Classroom, players are given a portion of time to take in and process the narrative, inciting introspection which was a key goal of the short experience.
We took in multiple rounds of playtesting feedback to refine the emotional experience of the game, trialing different ways of showing memories and intertwining it with the gameplay. The protagonist Kipp, drawn by Marvie was rigged and animated by me in Unity. I tried to take inspiration from children’s media such as ‘Charlie and Lola’ to evoke nostalgia in the Kipp’s movements.
- Role/s: Producer, Programmer, Animator/Rigging
- Team Size: 4
- Engine: Unity
- Duration: 4 months
- Project Type: Game Development